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5

Who writes dates like this in the first place? If they're to represent a date, then I would suggest just saying the date (e.g. "the twenty-eight of October, nineteen sixty-five"). If you're trying to express the fact that it's written with Roman numerals, you ought to tell this to your audience but eschew actually spelling it out for each date. Edit: I would say "Roman numeral" instead of "Roman", but then why not indicate "Arabic [numeral]" directly before and after? I don't understand what you're trying to accomplish here.
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ZairjaSep 13 '12 at 18:55

@FumbleFingers Never is putting it a bit strongly. I've seen dates written as 14-ix-12 fairly often; but that may be a particular custom and practice within a single organisation.
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Andrew Leach♦Sep 14 '12 at 6:51

1 Answer
1

The problem with dates is that they have written representations, and they are also spoken, but the two aren't necessarily intertwined. In other words, when saying a date aloud, I don't generally read it, I simply say it.

As an analogy, this is not unlike reading math equations. I might see one of these on a written page:

There's a difference between a notation and a pronunciation; dates work much the same.

As an example, a letter might have a date in the upper right-hand corner, and it could look like any of these:

September 13, 2012

13 Sep 12

9-13-2012

9/13/12 (or, 13/9/12)

13/IX-2012 (as pointed out earlier, this format would be very rare)

But, let's say I was going to read this letter aloud to an audience. Irrespective of how the date is written on the letter, I might say any of the following:

This letter is dated September 13th, two-thousand twelve

This letter is dated 13 September, two-thousand twelve

This letter is dated the 13th of September of this year (assuming it's still 2012)

This all varies according to the speaker, of course – some speakers might say the date a little differently. What's worth noting, however, is that, if I was doing the narration, I would almost assuredly NOT say any of these:

This letter is dated September thirteen comma, two thousand twelve

This letter is dated thirteen Sep twelve

This letter is dated nine dash thirteen dash twenty twelve

This letter is dated nine slash thirteen slash twelve

This letter is dated thirteen Roman twelve dash twenty twelve

Pretty much the only time I can imagine myself speaking a date in that fashion is if someone asked me a question such as:

How would you like me to write that date down? or,

How did the author write that date on the letter?

In that case, I might say something like "nine dash thirteen dash twenty twelve" – but that is a rare exception.